It’s probably not fair, since they do so much for me. I remember when I first learned that we have parasites. Ew, gross! was the typical reaction of my child self. Most of my nightmares involve bugs in some way and to learn that millions of them were crawling all over me and everyone else all the time was disgusting.

It was explained to me that they were microbes and that we are living in a relatively symbiotic relationship. (I’m sure “symbiotic” was one of the vocabulary words for the week.) In fact, we would die without them. The gross factor shrinking with each new piece of knowledge!

Fast forward to me today. I fight off what I’m told is SIBO (small intestine bacterial overgrowth). Gross factor reinstated. Then I learned this just means that the natural bacteria and fungi that normally live happily in my colon had a population explosion and some of them had to move on to less-crowded pastures: my small intestine. These refugees live unhappily (for me) there. They cause lots of IBS symptoms: bloating, constipation, cramping, and a lot of gas.

Many reasons exist for the population explosion, but they are not the topic of this post. Several options exist for how to deal with it which I won’t get into now. Except this one. My dietitian and posts from doctors on the Internet suggest that the health system that flushes out the little buggers is best supported by a “non-grazing” eating schedule. (Cows must have a giant SIBO population!)

In short, extend the time that you fast overnight to at least 12-14 hours and don’t eat more frequently during the day than 3-4-5 hours (opinions vary). So, here I sit, unfed from last night trying to extend my overnight fast – starving my parasites to death.